1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hand-held device (such as a mobile phone, PDA, or other mobile terminal), and more particularly to an apparatus for providing virtual graffiti using a touch-screen display for displaying information on its screen simultaneously with receiving user-entry data resulting from the user touching the screen.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional hand-held devices, such as for example, PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) and smart phones where a PDA function is combined with a mobile terminal function, receive user-entry data from a touchpad. Particularly, a specific hand-held device (e.g., a smart phone) for receiving user-entry data from a keypad configured in the form of a 3×4 matrix keypad (i.e., ten number keys 0˜9 and two function keys * and #) must enable a user to directly draw desired numeric or character information on its touchpad. The number of overall keys contained in the keypad is limited to a predetermined number, whereby it is difficult for the user of the smart phone to effectively enter all the characters using only the keys contained in the keypad. Such a hand-held device capable of receiving numeric or character data generally contains a predetermined data entry area. The data entry area is called a graffiti area in the case of Palm OS (operating System).
The first-generation PDA or smart phone has generally printed the graffiti area on a touchpad to implement a graffiti function as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. FIG. 1 is an exemplary view illustrating a touch-screen display 100 equipped with a graffiti area 108 printed on a touchpad 102. FIG. 2 is an exemplary configuration where a touchpad 202 equipped with a graffiti area 208 is separated from a touch-screen display 200. Generally, the touch-screen display 100 of FIG. 1 and the touch-screen display 200 of FIG. 2 are constructed by covering an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) panel for displaying images with a TSP (Touch-Sensitive Panel) for receiving user-entry data, respectively. Therefore, the touch-screen display 100 and the touch-screen display 200 can display information on their screens 104 and 204, and at the same time can receive user-entry as a result of the user touching the screens 104 and 204, respectively. Various application information is displayed on the screens 104 and 204 so that the user can view the displayed information. FIGS. 1 and 2 show display formats of icons 106 and 206 for executing a variety of applications. An icon 112 and a graffiti input box 110 are printed on the graffiti area 108 of FIG. 1. An icon 212 and a graffiti input box 210 are printed on the graffiti area 208 of FIG. 2. The icons 112 and 212 are adapted to implement a graffiti function. The graffiti input boxes 110 and 210 are adapted to receive graffiti entered by a user using a stylus pen.
There has recently been proposed a virtual graffiti scheme as shown in FIG. 3A for implementing the graffiti area using a software program, and the virtual graffiti scheme has become increasingly popular as a substitute for a current mobile phone. The virtual graffiti scheme enables a user to draw desired images (i.e., graffiti) on a screen of a touch-screen display so that the drawn graffiti is displayed on the screen. If the virtual graffiti is implemented using the software program, a flexible GUI (Graphic User Interface) service can be established, and at the same time the virtual graffiti area can disappear from the screen when the graffiti function is unused, as shown in FIG. 3B, resulting in increased efficiency of screen use. Referring to FIGS. 3A and 3B, a graffiti area 304 is displayed on a screen 302 of the touch-screen display 300. The screen 302 includes a plurality of icons 306 for executing a variety of applications in the same way as in the screens 104 and 204 of FIGS. 1 and 2. Similar to the graffiti areas 108 and 208 of FIGS. 1 and 2, the graffiti area 304 includes a plurality of icons 310 for executing the graffiti function and a graffiti input box 308 for enabling the user to enter desired graffiti using a data entry tool such as a stylus pen.
However, the graffiti implementation scheme for physically implementing the graffiti area as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 and the virtual graffiti implementation scheme for software implementation of the graffiti area as shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B must assign additional dedicated areas or space to their graffiti areas. Hand-held devices must be a small-sized and lightweight communication terminal, such that the additional dedicated area for the graffiti area may encounter limitations due to the small-size and lightweight requirements. Particularly, in case of using a specific hand-held device having a screen where the size ratio of a width to a height is equal to 1:1 in a way similar to a folder-type smart phone, the specific hand-held device cannot use the graffiti function due to its use of a small-sized keyboard instead of the graffiti function.